


Keep it together.

by misswritingobsessed



Category: SEAL Team (TV)
Genre: Comment Fic, F/M, Panic, Romance, Support, Worry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:00:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23158933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misswritingobsessed/pseuds/misswritingobsessed
Summary: “We both did a pretty good job of keeping it together today.”
Relationships: Mandy Ellis/Jason Hayes
Comments: 8
Kudos: 36





	Keep it together.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Maire_Caitroina](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maire_Caitroina/gifts).



> This is another comment fic - so, I really hope this is what you had in mind, I am also planning to do another fic with the same idea, so, if this is awful I hope the next one will be better!   
> Any and all mistakes are my own!

Jason clenched his fists, as he glared at Blackburn.

“You let her go alone.” Deep down, Jason knew it wasn’t Blackburn’s fault. Hell, he knew Mandy, she was independent and determined, if she wanted to go somewhere alone, then she would have done, chain of command be damned.

“We’ll find her, Jason. The kidnappers have already made contact. We know that she’s alive.”

Jason could feel his heart pounding in his chest, he could feel the fear rising up, the anger, the tears that he couldn’t let fall. Someone had taken Mandy.

“I want the team together right now; we need a plan.”

Blackburn nodded, leaving Jason alone for a few minutes.

He hated being on the plane at that moment, he couldn’t lose his cool, he couldn't take a moment to let a few tears slip because he was terrified. That’s the word he hated, the word that made him feel weak, but this was so different from worrying about a mission going wrong.

This was Mandy, the woman he cared so much about, the woman who’d pulled him back from the edge more time than he could count.

Mandy had spent countless nights helping Emma plan for college. She’d cooked meals, taken Mikey to hockey practice while he stared at the walls. Slowly but surely, he realised that he needed her, slowly but surely, he figured out that she needed him too. Work and home, they were separate, they had to be, but the emotions after a while merged into one.

He loved her, cared about her, admired her. Wanted to keep her safe, because his life depended on Mandy being around.

“Jace,” he lifted his head to see Ray standing in front of him.

“They’ve got Mandy.”

Ray nodded; Blackburn must have filled them in.

“I know, brother, but we’re the best and she’s a fighter, we’ll get her back.”

Jason swallowed hard. His relationship with Mandy was simple, they were professional at work, and personal at home, but regardless of how simple it was, he still told Ray.

“I can’t lose anyone else, Ray. I can’t lose Mandy, I mean, me, the team, the kids, we can’t lose her.”

Ray nodded, not wanting to make a promise he couldn’t keep. “You gotta be strong for her Jace, she knows that we’ll be coming for her, she knows you’ll stop at nothing to get her back, she’s holding onto that, we’ve gotta execute it.”

“Yeah,” Jason took a breath, nodding, “yeah, you’re right, let’s get her back.”

\----------

Jason knew he wasn’t thinking straight, because he was questioning the plan. They had a plan, a good one. One that would ensure Mandy’s safety, but as they got ready to land, he couldn’t stop himself from going over every tiny detail wondering what they should do differently.

His mind was running wild, the mission, Blackburn’s voice when he broke the news that Mandy was missing. They were moving from one country to the next, Mandy would meet them there after seeing a CI, that was the plan - not one they would usually follow, but one that had been green-lit in the heat of the moment - and gunfire.

“We land in thirty minutes, Jace.” Ray called to him.

Jason nodded, taking his seat. “Ray, if anything has happened,” He couldn’t finish his sentence.

“I know, but you know Mandy better than all of us, you know how strong she is, how much of a fighter she is.”

Jason shook his head, “Even the strongest people go down, Ray. She should have never been on her own, why did she go alone? After Jalalabad, I saw how shaken up she was after that, she wouldn’t risk it again.”

Ray sighed, “I don’t have the answers, Jace. Right now, she needs us to be at the top of our games, the kidnappers want money, they’ll keep her alive until they get it, so, we just gotta stay focused and be there to save the day before anyone gets hurt.”

“Before anyone gets killed - she’s a fighter, Ray, chances are, she’s already been hurt.”

Jason let his head fall back against the seat, hands still clenched by his side. He trusted the plan, his team, he trusted that Mandy would hang on, but even with all that on side, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. Apart from the obvious that it was empty in the seat next to him, when it should have been the brunette intelligence analyst with her head in a file, he felt like there was something they were missing.

“We’ve had contact from the kidnappers, Jason,” Blackburn started, and Jason held his breath, “they’ve sent a video.”

\----------

He had to keep it together, that was all. Just hold it together, hold his emotions in.

Soon enough Mandy would be sat next to him on the plane and they would be heading back to the States, and he could try and rid his brain of the video.

The video had been short, a room, a basement, all he could see was Mandy and a wall. The gag in her mouth and the look of determination in her eyes as she stared into the camera while her kidnappers demanded she speak. Jason found himself and the rest of the team wincing when Mandy took a blow to the side of the head.

She’d been trained by the CIA. She wasn’t allowed to speak, she couldn’t give them up, she couldn’t say anything, all she could do was stick to the cover story she’d been given, or one of the many that she’d made up and hope that her kidnappers believed her.

“They want money and a prisoner release.” Blackburn said.

Jason shook his head, “No one will agree to that. Mandy is CIA, she’s replaceable.” He remembered the night after her mentor’s funeral, where they stayed in a hotel, where he held her as she cried and talked and then cried some more. When she told him she was replaceable, that if she died someone else would take her place.

The night he told her that no matter what he would find her. He wouldn’t let her die nameless; he wouldn’t let her die at all.

“We land in fifteen minutes.” Jason said. “Fifteen minutes, then we go get her.”

The way he spoke left no room for argument, but the look of determination from his team matched Mandy’s in the video. There was no room for questions either, they were going to get Mandy - to suggest anything else at that moment would have fallen on deaf ears.

“Let’s go get her back, brother.” Ray told him as they made their way to their seats.

All Jason needed to do was keep it together, hold it together long enough to make sure Mandy was sat next to him on the plane ride home, head in the classified document, taking breaks and laughing at his poor jokes - just long enough for her to be there, next to him. Yes, it was where she belonged, but to Jason, it was where he needed her to be.

\----------

Jason watched Mandy closely as she was looked over by the medical team on the plane.

“I’m fine, really. It could have been a lot worse had you not kicked the door down when you did.”

Jason chuckled, “Yeah, well thankfully you’re okay.”

Mandy reached out to take his hand. “What was it you told me when we did our first mission? Sometimes the training doesn’t matter, sometimes all you can do is hold it together?”

Jason gave Mandy’s hand a gentle squeeze, “We both did a pretty good job of keeping it together today.”

“I was going to question Ray later. I was wondering how you would react.” She admitted.

Jason shrugged in reply. “I kept it together.”

He didn’t tell her how he only just held it together. How it was a struggle, how his heart still hadn’t slowed down even though she was now safe.

“Thank you, Jason.”

He stayed with her the whole flight home, holding her hand, helping her sip water, watching her closely. She had been the reason he kept it together, because he knew if he began to fall apart, he would risk losing her.

They had both held it together that day. They were both back where they belonged, on the plane, next to each other, heading home.

“What are you thinking about?” Jason asked when Mandy moving a little pulled him out of his thoughts.

“Thinking what I would do differently, you know, for the next time someone holds me captive.”

“There won’t be a next time, Mandy.” They both knew he couldn’t promise that, but that didn’t stop him from saying it.

“But if there was?”

Jason shook his head, a hint of a smile on his lips - Mandy always did like to be prepared.

“Just focus on holding it together until I get there.”

“Is that what you did today? Held it together until you got to me?”

Jason looked at her for a few moments, before he began to nod slowly. “Yeah, Mandy, that’s what I did today.”

There was a look exchanged, one of unsaid thanks, one that meant they would speak later. But mainly, a look of relief, they were both okay, and that was something to smile about.

**Author's Note:**

> I would love to know your thoughts and if you have any ideas you want to see!


End file.
